


|| Ice Melts But The River Goes On||

by deliciouslycrzy



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Character Death Fix, F/M, Fluff, Gen, Post-Canon Fix-It, because they didn't really fit, but I left out some of the clues I wanted to put in, but if anyone can guess they get a cookie, but the Kaidonovskys do, he's based off a real person, just this once everybody lives, okay not everyone, okay so Jack isn't actually an OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-08-01
Packaged: 2017-12-22 00:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/906701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliciouslycrzy/pseuds/deliciouslycrzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world thought them dead, and so dead they were, at least until Sasha Kaidonovsky woke with the same blood-curdling hateful scream she had died with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bury My Heart On The Coast

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't anything but the plot, and even that was inspired by the absolutely unfair death of the best Russian couple I've ever seen.
> 
> This fic started as a drabble, but- well. It's obviously grown into something much bigger and more unwieldy than I could ever imagine it would be. This fic wouldn't be possible if it weren't for my best friend and beta, Sarah, I'm pretty sure this would be much worse than it is, as it is-
> 
> I hope you enjoy :) 
> 
> Also - 
> 
> -words in italics are thoughts or memories-  
> -words in italics in quotation marks are emphasized-  
> -and words in italics in quotations and a pair of these {} are in Russian-

The Kaidonovskys, as the world knew them, were dead and gone.

By all accounts, vitals sensors and what visuals had been available at the time from Striker Eureka, _Cherno Alpha_ had exploded beneath the Kaiju’s fist, and their bodies along with it. Rubble and a hollowed out carcass were all that the recovery team had expected to find when they went to salvage what they could.

And actually- that _is_ all they find.

If someone noticed that certain things were missing that shouldn’t have been destroyed in the explosion like bone fragments and what was left of their heavy, near indestructible suits, no one thought to mention it beyond scribbling a near incomprehensible note beneath the recovery and restructuring forms.

So thus it was forgotten, for a while.

The fabled Kaidonovskys, who has held the longest recorded neural handshake and were a key part of the Kaiju war effort, were memorialized the next day in the paper and celebrated and mourned by those they’d saved over the years, and then...

Left behind, as painful memories tended to be, and the world moved on.

The world thought them dead, and so dead they were, until the moment that on a miniscule oft forgotten island off the coast of China, Sasha Kaidonovsky woke with the same blood-curdling, hateful scream that she had died with.

 

_Her dreams were drowning, hateful things that stained memories red and with Alexsis’s shout rocking her over and over again, followed by a sweet murmur and cloth running over her forehead, water rushing into the conn-pod and choking down her throat as much as growled and spat it out, it was the fear and the animalistic rage that boiled her blood as she thrashed and **refused** to let it take her, it was the look on her face from her other half as they ripped their helmets off and water and Blue surged at them and they linked hands and just **swam**._

 

When she finally woke for longer than a few, panic-inducing minutes, it was much later and she still felt as hollow as she had in her dreams, and everything felt blurred and dazed in comparison to the sharp crispness of the blood and Blue that marked her dreams. She blinked and that helped for a moment, before the exhaustion she would not, could not, admit, hit her like a bottle over the back of the head.

At first she was not sure where she was, for one dizzying moment it was a decade prior and- s _he’s waking up to nothing after they’d ripped her and her brother’s dead body from the wreck of their Jaeger, with blonde hair billowing in clumps from her head and the whispers of I’m so sorry for your loss burning in her ears as she tears herself from the bed and doesn’t even hold herself back from spitting in their faces because they’re lying, of course they have to be lying-_  And then Sasha blinked and the med bay was gone, replaced by sunlight streaming through wooden slats that made her blink far too much and the pain in her head rear it’s ugly head. There was the scent of dried blood in the air, a sharp contrast to the scent of warm sea spray wafting through the cracked door.

She was alone, and the ache felt as fierce as the throbbing in her head.

She felt strangely naked, wearing only sweatpants and a thin black shirt with some sort of symbol on it from a long gone American rock-band from the 20th century. It was a mouth, with an obscenely large tongue sticking out of it. It certainly wasn’t hers or Aleksis’s, but-

It was comfortable, as comfortable as she could feel at any rate.

She growled, a low, hoarse thing that sounds far too weak for her liking, and pushed herself up as best she could, and that- that was when she noticed.

She was off balance. Not mentally- she’d felt so before, when her brother had died and in the time before she’d been paired with Aleksis, but this was not that and she would scoff and call whoever accused her of such a thing an idiot once more as she had before.

No-

No.

Her fingers find the source of the problem before her eyes do, and as bandaged, battered fingers wrap around the stump where had once been her left arm, her eyelids flicker shut. A moment is all Sasha allowed herself, before gritting her teeth and letting her hand fall to her side. She noted the lack of weight on that side and would remember in the future.

It was  just an arm, after all.

She’d had two of them, it didn’t matter much.

Not as much as did the fact that she was alone in this ramshackle little hut.

She glanced around for sight of him, for anything that would signal that he had been here, that he had survived whatever had propelled them out of _Cherno_ and into the sea. She had been unconscious, she knew that much, and even she could not rescue herself whilst out as she had been.

A chair in the left far corner, a battered 20th century refrigerator in the other. There was one bed, but it looked big enough for two, and the side she hadn’t been sleeping on looked neat, and perfectly put together.

A small, grim smile twirked at the corners of her mouth.

Aleksis had to be around here somewhere- no one else made the bed like that large brute of a man did - all sharp corners and the ragged pillow looking the most fluffy it had probably been since it had been bought.

So he had been here, he had survived the Kaiju attack and he had been alive recently enough to resort to his latent anal retentive tendencies that only arose in a crisis.

But where was he _now_?

An irritable sigh left her lips and she turned to face the opposing wall, bringing her legs to hang off the edge of the bed. It wasn’t a high frame, and unlike their bed at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, her legs didn’t dangle off it but instead planted her feet firmly on the ground, sand squishing beneath her toes as she stretched her legs and craned her neck back.

She was sore- her whole body ached beyond the stump of her left arm. Her remaining fingers felt battered but usable, as did the rest of her. Mostly it was weakness in muscles that had gone untested for an unknown amount of days, alongside what felt like miniscule cuts and bruises darkening the rest of her.

Nothing Sasha could not handle- she had endured worse and still gotten into the Jaeger the next day.

 

_Only Alexsis knows that chemotherapy hit Sasha worst than anything else she’d ever dealt with- threatening to bow her over with every treatment but she’d fought it tooth and nail like she fought everything else._

 

It was obvious he was not in the tiny well-worn shack, unless somehow he had managed to hide himself under the rickety old bed or in the fridge.

Somehow, she doubted that she would find him in either of these places, so instead resolved to search elsewhere.

She pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the creaking in her bones and the way her body seemed to shake, for just a moment, unused to the sudden shifting of weight. Sasha gritted her teeth, irritated by how her own body seemed to be betraying her at every turn. She was _it’s_ master, not the other way around, and she was not going to spend another moment in bed, not when she had questions to be answered.

A few more steps and the sensation of being off balance seemed to fade, and Sasha made it to the doorway without too much trouble. She reached out and pushed back the curtain, squinting irritably at the sun that streamed in and seemed to bite at her still sensitive eyes, before striding out into the brilliant, blinding sunlight.

She inhaled deeply, the scent of salty sea air sharp in her nostrils and it was _invigorating._

It reminded her of those few mornings spent at the Hong Kong Shatterdome, standing out on the deck letting her hands dangle over the side, salt water spraying upwards every few minutes as the waves crashed against the foundation of the base.

It was only then, as she stepped out onto the long stretch of beach, sands spreading along for miles in either direction and the ocean lapping at the shore, that it struck her how hot this place was, hotter even than Hong Kong, which had taken some of adjusting for her and Aleksis when they had first been restationed.

But they had- they always adjusted- Vladivostok Shatterdome may have been their home base at one time, but it wasn’t as though they’d both been bound to Russia their whole lives. Mostly, of course. But regardless, they had been all over and seen all sorts of weather, so Hong Kong had been nothing, really. The only thing they’d had to get used to in Hong Kong had been the overwhelming about of Kaiju _worshippers_ that lived there, those who became intensely enraged when they realized that a pair of top class Kaiju killers were in their midst.

Sasha smiled fondly at the memory; Aleksis had nearly broken one the priests jaw after he’d heard him called her a Jaeger whore, and Sasha had needed to pull him away before he beat him even worse- it wasn’t as though she couldn’t fight her own battles, she’d certainly have done worse if Aleksis had managed to keep his temper.

Which- he’d been getting better at recently, but he was young still.

But regardless, she- she swallowed, falling out of the memory as if kicked, as she remembered that they had nearly- that if things had happened just a bit differently he wouldn’t have had a chance to grow old and gain a grip on that infamous temper of his.

And still- she wasn’t sure where he was.

If-

  
But of course he had to be. He was a stubborn ox of a man.

He had to be _somewhere_ around here.

Wherever here was.

But- she was not sure yet and that frustrated her nearly as much as the fact that she still did not know where her husband was. The big bear could have lumbered off anywhere, she realized, and she didn’t have even the first thought of where to look.

Sasha was not quite sure of anything yet, not much beyond the fact that she was alive.

It was an island, she was certain on that at least, and she knew that if she could not see him from where she was standing, then- she simply had to pick a direction and walk. She would find him soon enough, and hopefully, the answers to the rest of her questions as well.

 

_Before they were known as simply the Kaidonovskys, they were Sasha and Aleksis. Before chemotherapy, they’d both had hair to their shoulders, blonde and brown and she’d loved to hook her fingers through his long locks and yank him back, drag her teeth across his adam’s apple and make him groan. After the treatments, she still does this, but its nails against his scalp instead, the stubble scratching her palm. To the outside world, they would always be the Kaidonovskys, and to them- they are one in two._

She found him a ways down the shore, knee deep in the frothing sea water. There appeared to be a couple of battered looking beach chairs, one of them occupied by what appeared to be a sleeping, long-haired elderly man, Chinese, if her guess was correct, with his feet propped up on a cooler, a fishing pole stuck in the stand next to him.

Sasha cocked her eyebrow at the sight; if he were an enemy, it was doubtful that Aleksis would have allowed him to sleep so peacefully. That fishing pole would be in his throat instead of resting next to him, so- a friend then.

Or at least an ally.

A small, hand built dock was set behind them, sturdy but tiny, with only a small fishing boat tethered to it. Beyond that, she could see a what appeared to be a portion of _Cherno Alpha_ ’s hull, warped and twisted, but just big enough to have theoretically carried her and Aleksis. .

If that were in fact what had happened; she grunted irritably, frustrated by the large chunk of nothing where memory should have been.

She was far enough away from the two men for neither of them to notice her, so she stopped where she was, mouth curving into a vague smile as she watched Aleksis, his back turned to her as he stared down at something intently, with the same expression he had when they were stalking Kaiju in Vladivostok winters for hours on end.

It appeared her husband had decided to forego the fishing pole in favor of a crudely fashioned spear, apparently the thought of simply sitting on the dock and waiting for something to bite not something he was interested in.

 

_When they met he was worse- a roiling ball of spastic energy with a temper like a Molotov cocktail, and Command had been confident that he’d never find a partner. No living family and bottled with rage and lack of restraint, he was a time bomb. She, on the other hand- kicking his ass every day made it easier to cope with the loss of her brother, and eventually - the beast calmed, and she found herself with a big lovable lug as a co-pilot._

 

Alexsis had never been the patient type, and-

He didn’t seem to be having much luck with the spearing, either. He was moving too fast, his shoulders too tense, and his was aiming too high- the fish swam away before the tip even pierced the surface. Sasha could see the frustration building in his body language, how the muscles of his bared back seemed to twitch and coiled, his free hand clenched in a tight fist at his side.

If he’d been gripping any harder he’d probably have drawn blood.

She cocked a brow at the behavior; it had been years since he’d lost his temper so quickly, and if she was right-

“ Agh!”

It was more of a roar than a cry, and Sasha had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing out loud. He had missed yet again, and the harpoon was gripped in his hands so tightly for a moment she thought he was about to snap it between beefy fingers. Another half beat of a moment and then he was lunging forward, thrusting the spear forward with so much force that it sailed high above them both, arcing and coming down quite the distance away, the wooden spear hitting the water with a heavy ‘plop’ and sticking straight out of the water.

The old man in his chair let out a murmur and twitched as if he were about to rise, but settled once more, wrinkled hands settling on his chest limply.

“ _Shluha vokzal'naja_!” A guttural growl left Alexsis’ tongue like a howl the moment the spear left his hand, his voice deep and thick and raw. If Sasha were a younger, less experienced woman, perhaps she would have shuddered at how his whole body seemed to shift with his words, hands and features twisted as he shouted into the air. It seemed to echo around them and yet disappear all at once, swallowed by the trees to their back and the emptiness that stretched out at sea.

Her lips twitched into a full-bodied smile, and before she knew it, she was laughing, the sound crisp and clear. Aleksis’ head shot up at the sound and he twisted towards her, expression a strange mix of shock and hopefulness as he stared at her, frozen for a moment in time.

And for that moment, she stared right back.

It was only now as he faced her fully that she could see the dark  burns that created a patchwork across his chest, skin ragged and torn from where it had come into contact with Kaiju Blue. Scarred flesh twisted up his right side, marring his shoulder and creeping up his neck, licking up his jaw, and she made a mental note to kiss those later, the only medal worthy of her brave, wonderful Aleksis.

And despite the severity of what they had gone through what they had survived and the fact that they both look like patchwork dolls,  her smile persisted, curving sensually around the edges because despite all that  they were _alive._

Her eyebrow cocked, and she brought her hand up, index finger crooking as she beckoned to him and tongue darting out over her lips as she spoke in a low, husky purr.

_“{ Come here, krasavchik.}”_

The tension in his shoulders seemed to melt from him almost instantaneously, and another beat of time had barely passed before he was lumbering towards her, spear forgotten and water splashing haphazardly against his bare calves and spraying the blue cut offs he wore black.

And then he was there, his big, corded arms snaking around her waist and tugging her up; there was pain, a soreness deep in her bones and a tearing sensation in her stump, but she ignored it as she twined her own arm around his shoulders to anchor herself, reveling in the contact, of his chest, warmed and bronzed by the heavy sun beating down on them both, pressed tight against her own, of her fingers groping across his bare back, thumbs stroking tender, scarred flesh. He was warm and strong and a thrumming, beating _strength_ beneath her palms.

A low grumble of approval seemed to thunder against her chest and she felt the barest hints of a smile against her neck.

Aleksis.

 _Her_ Aleksis.

 _“ {You were doing it wrong, husband.}”_ Sasha murmured after countless moments spent in silence, wrapped up in one another and simply _breathing_ together, as they had for years and years before. She felt his chest puff at that and she pulled back, just enough so that when he leaned forward, his forehead pressed against hers and their breath mingled. Her eyes flickered up to his and it was beyond soothing, to see those big blue eyes staring at her. She knew what it meant when he looked at her like that, and she leaned forward to press a kiss to his nose as his brow furrowed in confusion.

 _“ {The spear was defective- that is not my fault.}”_ He said in return, even as he began to turn them both, towards the ocean and where they could both see the wooden tool still sticking straight up amidst the waves. Aleksis would have to retrieve it at some point, she thought distantly, but not yet.

This time, it was he who kissed her, cheeks rough and scratchy from where his beard had grown longer, untamed, his lips moving over hers in a brutish manner, bruising and sloppy and yet she loved it, returning it with equalled fervor, arm tightening around her neck.

 _“{ It is not spear- it is you.}”_ Sasha let out a quiet gasp for breath as she pulled back reluctantly, loathing to admit that she was out of breath already. Lips puckered, she pressed them against his forehead in a gentle kiss, before removing her arm from around his neck and beating her palm against his chest. She noticed absently that where she had kissed him, there was no smudging of red lipstick as there usually was.“ _{Let me down, you brute. I shall show you.}”_

If she had been reluctant to break the kiss, Aleksis seemed even more reluctant to let her down, doing so only after she’d insisted and placing her on the sand as if she were glass.

He was cautious about her arm, or distinct lack of one, rather, and if she had not been concerned about the still healing burns and lacerations that criss-crossed his skin like lattice work, she would have beat him for it.

With the missing limb, if she’d been able to find it.

But she did not say that, simply smacked his bicep and stalked away, into the ocean and towards the tossed spear. He stared after her for a moment before letting out a huff and following her into the surf.

The water was warm and salty, soaking through the bottom of the pants she wore easily until she was trudging forward, water splashing around her thighs. The salt burned at what cuts and laceration she had, but she ignored it.

  
 _“{ You are not patient enough, Aleksi.}”_ Sasha said after a moment as her hand curved around the spear and plucked it up from where it was buried in the sand beneath the water. She twisted it around, examining the carved head of the spear before turning back around, to wade back towards where Aleksis was hanging back, his arms crossed against his chest and expression a mix of amusement and irritation at being scolded. 

 _“{ Pah. I do not need patience to catch fish- I need a harpoon gun. Or regular gun, even better.}”_ He retorted, and then gestured towards her, lips twitching with a smile, as if challenging her to prove her differently. She cocked a brow at them and then shrugged as she stepped closer towards him, spear hefted in her hand.

She could see the fish, flitting about around Aleksis’ feet, both big and small. From the way he was staring off beyond her right shoulder, she could see that he had obviously caught sight of a fish, or- something.

Well- so had she.

Her lips quirked, and then-

She darted forward with the spear, diving the point between Aleksis’ spread legs and into the water.

The tip barely missed the juncture of his thighs, and she grinned at the way his eyes widened and he jumped backwards, water spraying up and splashing them both. She straightened as he did, and resisted the urge to laugh at the way he was grimacing at her, eyes scrunched up and mouth squeezed into a firm grimace.

_“{What was that for?!}”_

Sasha cocked her brow and then lifted the harpoon between them, point up so he could clearly see the large, still twitching fish speared neatly on the thin, sharp stick. He stared between her and the fish in awe, and she laughed now, as she let her hand and the spear fall to her side and she stepped up to him, pressing against his chest and standing up on tiptoe to lay a kiss against his cheek.

_“{ This is how you catch fish, husband.}”_

A moment passed, and then he laughed too, a booming, echoing roar that rung her ears like a gong sound, before leaning down to wrap an arm around her waist and kiss her deeply, soundly, as if they hadn’t been to the brink of hell and back.

As if they weren’t standing knee deep in the ocean as Sasha clutched the spear in her hand and Aleksis kissed the salt from her lips.


	2. Glass and Iron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasha is not a fragile summer flower, and usually, Aleksis knows this. Usually.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow, thanks guys for all of your encouraging comments and bookmarks, I really appreciate it all! ^_^ 
> 
> Again, I own nothing but my own denial that these two are gone, and this wouldn't be possible without my wonderful beta.

They had spent countless hours on that beach together, between kisses and catching fish and never being more than a few inches from one another, and as they added to the growing pile of fish caught, Aleksis told her of what had happened since the Double Event in Victoria Harbor, in a quiet murmur of Russian so as to not wake the still sleeping man just a few feet away.

His name was Jack, and he’d been the who had rescued them both- found them floating out on a drifting piece of _Cherno_ , half dead and bleeding and dragged them back to the island where he’d patched them up.

Aleksis did not speak about what happened before that, but Sash knew that they would not  have even been on that piece of scrap if it had not been for him. Her own last memories of the attack were of rushing water and pain and not being able to breathe as salty sea water assaulted her throat, and of _Aleksis_ , ripping out the cables that had tethered them to the conn pod, of his grunts of pain as Blue ate through his suit and he shielded her the best he could.

He did not mention any of this, and did not know that she even remembered that night. She had not corrected him at the time, and would not. She knew her husband and knew it would do no good to remind him of it, not when he still looked at her left shoulder with what she knew was guilt in his eyes.

He did not know she caught him then, either.

Sasha did not blame him, but she would not feed his guilt by asking him to stop blaming himself. She was not quite well enough to fight it out of him, something which frustrated her beyond reason, and- She knew how he worked, how he thought, and that again- it would only make it worse. So she ignored that as well, and listened instead to his voice as he spoke, to the calm lilt in his words as he told her of what he and Jack had learned in the two weeks she’d been out.

_Two weeks._

It seemed surreal to her, to think that she had been dead to the world for two weeks, that the world had moved on while she had slept and Aleksis had waited and tended to her and spent his days failing at fishing next to a nearly senile old man.

“ _{Why did you not wake me, idiot? Instead let me laze away in bed for weeks on end like an invalid.}_ ” She had chastised when he’d told her that, and then had scowled at him and returned to concentrating on spearing their next fish. He had laughed, and she had smiled in spite of herself.

So, he had let her sleep. They would simply have to make up for the lost time later, in some way or another.

Which- led to their next problem that they had to tackle.

Neither of them mention it until later, long after the sun had set and Aleksis and Sasha had helped the old man back to his shack.

He was a nice man, if a little cranky when he realized that he’d fallen asleep in the middle of fishing, and he took Sasha’s hand when she offered it, squeezing back with a weak, arthritic grip but enthusiastic all the same.  He wore an oversized straw hat and ridiculously bright Hawaiian shirt, and reminded her more and more of an aged Doctor Geiszler every moment that spent with him, but-

He was a decent man, which made her feel more at ease at the thought of having left Aleksis alone with him for two weeks while she had slept and -

She scoffed.

_Healed._

She dropped the beach chair in the sand in front of the ramshackled little structure, before turning back to scowl at where Aleksis and Jack were still struggling with the two heavy, full coolers filled with a motley assortment of fish and beer and empty cans.

Or rather, Jack was struggling and Aleksis was attempting to help him while his own was held on top of his broad, beefy shoulder.

Ugh. Men.

They had refused to allow her to help with the coolers, which was a ridiculous notion in and of itself. Jack was not a feeble man by any means, but he was old and struggling with the weight of attempting to carry the cooler, and Aleksis was at least smart enough to not try and put the second cooler up on his wounded shoulder. His whole right side seemed to be weaker than normal, a side effect of the burns, she assumed.

He’d likely not paid much attention to his own injuries- she’d seen him go days avoiding medical attentions during her own bad days-

_days where she’s had chemo that morning and it’s only sheer willpower keeping her breakfast down, where she grits her teeth through simulation practice and has to throw herself into training to keep from keeling over-_

and it had always taken her forcibly dragging him by his collar down to medical even though the effort made her break out in a sweat, because she’d be damned if her stupid husband was going to get himself infected.

She would have to check his burns later. For now-

She stormed in the direction of the two men, eyes blazing as she glared at them fully. Aleksis returned the gaze stonily, long past the times where merely a look from her in his direction would cause him to run away in the opposite direction, and Jack blanched but kept his tenuous hold on the cooler.

_“ {It will all rot if you fuck around anymore.}”_ She bit out pointedly in Russian, as she strode up and snatched the handle of the cooler in question from the two men. Jack raised a bushy eyebrow but gave it up, and she let out a sharp snort as Aleksis shot the man a death glare and he simply shrugged and muttered something in Mandarin that sounded like ‘scary lady’ and ‘dinner now’ and scampered off in the direction of the shack, tails of his tacky red shirt flying out behind him in the night breeze.

_Good._

At least _someone_ was still intimidated by her, missing arm and all. She redirected her glare at Aleksis, whose expression seemed to set into an equally imposing glare, but did nothing to dissuade her from hefting up her arm so she could drag the cooler properly in place of carrying it.

It was heavier than she had expected, but she gritted her teeth and steadied her arm before twisted and turning back towards the shack and beginning to lug it in that direction.

After only a few seconds her left side seemed to scream at the effort, and she swore brightly and kept moving. It was like a ripping in her side- distantly she thought that it might actually _be_  ripping, of any stitches that she might have had. She had to have stitches, actually, but she hadn’t actually looked.

_Hm._

She huffed, shoulders tensing as she tried to mask the fact that she was winded already, and kept tugging, despite the pain lancing through her side. _Fuck_ , this stupid cooler wasn’t going to best her. She had beaten men three times its size with half the effort she was exerting now, this was not-

And then suddenly, the load lightened, and her head swiveled abruptly back, where she saw that Aleksis had hefted the other side of the cooler up with his right hand, the other cooler still hefted on his opposite shoulder. Her scowl softened and she narrowed her eyes at him, taking in the barest of twitches in his right eye, the way he was favoring his right side, just enough for her to notice. His expression was one of frustration, of irritation and bemusement.

_“ {You will tear your stitches.}_ ” He said after a moment, and then gestured with his right shoulder towards the shack and began to move. Sasha sneered at that, but was not about to let him carry both of the coolers by himself, so she held onto her end and followed him.

That of course, did not mean she was going to bite her tongue.

_“{ I will give you stitches if you keep treating me as though I shall shatter, husband.}”_ Sickly sweet the words rolled from her lips, and she heard him snort and wave off the threat with a shrug of his shoulders.

She said nothing, did not apologize and only smirked, because she knew that Aleksis knew that she hadn’t meant it.

_Sasha had never before let anyone, let alone a man, baby her. Not her brother, not the men on the streets who offered her the stars if only she’d give up what was between her legs, not the men in the program who weren’t much better, but then stupid, smug Aleksis comes along and he’s the one who can get her to remember to eat, and to take her pills on time and go to her med bay appointments, and along the way, she stopped resenting him for it. Most of the time._

She was not about to admit how much less her arm ached as he helped her carry the heavy cooler to the front of the shack, how the ache in her chest subsided and the sweat sticking hair to her brow cooling in the cool, ocean breeze.

As they set it down, the plastic container sinking into the sand heavily, she let out another sigh and crossed her right arm against her chest for a moment, before heaving another and letting her arm fall to her side, irritated by how unbalanced the stance felt. As she shifted and tried to find a comfortable position, she kept her eyes on Aleksis, on the way he heaved the last cooler next to the one they’d carried over together, and how, again-

He was favoring his right side.

The wounds she could see- dark, twisted things that brought to mind the thought of Blue on flesh, of the memories seared into her brain of what it had felt like, acidic blood burning _his_ skin- looked much worse off than they had earlier, red around the edges and blistering.

His eyes met hers in question.

Another sigh, an irritated one this time, left her lips.

_“ {Come, Aleksis.}_ ” She breathed after a long, sinking moment, the words heavy and weighted on her tongue, and he frowned. Sasha turned away from the coolers, away from him, and began walking towards where she remembered seeing what had look like a first aid kit on one of the tables up against the front of the shack. Her fingers twined around the handle and she picked it up, hoping that it had enough to at least clean the worst of his burns.

She looked back to see if he was following her, and frowned when she saw that he had stopped. She strode up to him, eyes narrowing at him dangerously, with questions of her own.

_“{Sasha, I am fine-}”_ She pressed a finger to his lips, effectively silencing him.

_“{I swear to God, Aleksander Kaidanovsky, if you collapse, I will not be dragging your fat ass back to Hong Kong!}”_ Sasha warned, her words angry and laced with all of the frustration and worry she had been trying to bury all day, about him and what they had left behind in Hong Kong. Jack had no radio on the island or TV, and there was no way for them to know what they would return to.

But they would return.

They had not discussed it yet, but they did not need to.

And so she needed him healthy and as whole as could be, so they could walk back into that city and do what they had been trained to do, Jaeger or no Jaeger.

She watched his shoulders slump, the expression of gritted determination that had stained his features since he’d asked her to carry the chair instead of one of the coolers fading, watched him change before her eyes from Aleksis Kaidonovsky to _her_ Aleksis, her big teddy bear of a man.

Another beat of time passed and then he sighed and nodded, as if he knew she would not back down.

And she wouldn’t.

Backing down was not a phrase that Sasha Kaidonovsky was particularly familiar with, nor ever intended to make acquaintance of.

She smiled at him, and stood up on her tip-toes to press a kiss to his cheek and murmur _“{Thank you, husband.}”_ before turning on her heel and continuing walking on as she had before, Aleksis not far behind.

Instead of walking over to where they could have picked up and set up the chairs, they went the opposite direction, beyond the shack just a ways where they saw a few trees clustered together near where sand ended and the grass began. It was just secluded enough for them both, even though truly, there wasn’t much to hide on this island, or anyone to hide it from besides Jack.

It was habit more than anything else, that came from living on base with hundreds of soldiers and technicians and countless others. Most never thought about it, nor noticed truly, because of outrageously open they were about the rest of their affectionate moments, and because almost every tech who worked on _Cherno_ personally had walked in on them in the conn pod more than once, armor shed and lost in one another and the post-drift haze where they still didn’t know which one had the brother and which one had the beard.

So when they did disappear, be it behind the stair in mess hall or to their quarters or to one of the many abandoned maintenance closets, they were never questioned, because everyone assumed what they were doing and didn’t want to make a big deal of it.

Of course- they were wrong, they always were.

Aleksis had taken care of her before, one of the only people besides her brother she’d ever allowed to do so, and so now she would take care of him. Not for the first time, but the first time in long while, since her hair had started to come out in clumps and he’d been keeping an extra packet of her pills in his pocket, just in case.

After they had both settled down in the sands and Aleksis was leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees, Sasha placed the first aid kit on the ground and flicked open the lid. It was a pretty basic kit, and it looked like that all of the peroxide had already been used up, leaving only a small package of antiseptic wipes.

She let out a grumble of annoyance at that; it certainly wasn’t what she would have hoped for, but it would have to do. She picked up the package of wipes, glaring at for a moment as she tried to figure out how exactly she was going to go about opening it. Aleksis watched her, and out of the corner of her eye she could see how much he wanted offer his help.

Her eyes flickered to meet his, and she watched him swallow whatever he was about to say.

She scowled further, and then brought the package up to her lips and snagged the plastic seal with her teeth and ripped it open. She spit out the taste of the antiseptic as it spilled against her lips, and dropped the wipes back into the first aid kit. She snatched up one with her fingertips and then turned back to her husband, taking in the variety of wounds that he had.

All of them appeared to have at least some sort of infection, and the wipes just weren’t going to be enough to clean them properly and allow them to heal.

Sasha growled again, and had to bite her tongue to keep herself from smacking Aleksis upside the head for his sheer stupidity. She loved him, adored him, but-

_“{ Fuck, Aleksis.}”_ She murmured, as she leaned in to begin wiping along the lesions that stretched across his right shoulder. If it stung, he said nothing, only grunted in response.

At least soon, or hopefully so, they would be somewhere where he could get proper medical attention.

Hopefully.

_“{How far is Hong Kong from here?}”_

He cocked an eyebrow at the question, and then shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t seem particularly surprised that she had asked the question. _“{Jack says that there is an island not far from here- with people and a phone. We can call for a pickup from there.}”_

Sasha wasn’t surprised that he’d already thought of it- she imagined he had to be going stir crazy after all of this, and- she knew she would too if she’d been conscious the past two weeks. Not knowing what was out there, what had happened-

It was frustrating.

_“{So we go back.}”_ It was not a question, just a statement of facts as she dabbed antiseptic wipes over his skin. They could speak to Jack, and hopefully go in the morning- it would be the call that would be the moment of truth, as well as finally being somewhere where they could catch the news.

_“{We go back.}”_ He agreed softly, as he looked up to meet her eyes. He paused a moment, and Sasha could see the hesitation in his eyes, as if he was second-guessing whether he should say something, and then added, _“{I was going to go a week ago, and bring help here, but- I did not want to leave you.}”_ Aleksis stopped, and Sasha swallowed her words, seeing everything unsaid in the way his adam’s apple flexed, and his eyes darkened.

He had waited with her every moment he could, tended to her and slept by her every night in the hopes she would wake up, that -

_That he hadn’t failed her._

It came to her clearly as if they were still in the drift, and her expression softened and she let the wipe fall from her hand as she brought it up to cup his cheek. Stubble rubbed her palm and she stroked her thumb against his cheekbone as he stared up at her, eyes bluest blue she’d ever known, and she smiled.

They had been through hell and back again and again.

But they were okay, and they would continue to be okay.

_“{ Together or not at all, right, husband?}”_ She murmured matter of factly, leaning forward to brush her lips against his. A low hum from him, and he was kissing her back, lips moving against hers in a slow burning, not a storm as they usually were but the rumble of the ocean as it lapped against the shore.

Together.

As it always was, and would always be, even in the end.

Together or not at all.


	3. Ghosts Flicker From View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As everything, they do it together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now it comes to a close. I hope you guys enjoy this last chapter :)

Sasha had been right.

The phone call had been the worst part of the whole ordeal.

At first, after giving their security clearance numbers, they had been hung up on, the dial tone ringing in Sasha’s ear as she  held the old, beaten payphone receiver to her ear. She had looked over at Aleksis with a scowl that could have incinerated Moscow, and then dialed again.

They were just outside a bar on one of the bigger islands that Jack had brought them to, some tacky tiki bar meant for tourists, and only Sasha could fit in the phone booth so Aleksis was outside, leaning his shoulder against the glass and watching her as she used their last few coins to make the call again. 

She was sure she was only imagining the creaking, but then again- 

The next call, they had gotten an angry Tendo Choi. His voice was hoarse and scratchy, and Sasha would gamble that he had just returned from his hourly smoke break. They were not allowed in the Shatterdome itself, but there was a place out on the deck specifically for those who couldn’t go without one of the cancer sticks.

“ If this is some sort of joke-”

“Mr. Choi. Would we pull such joke?” She asked for a moment, the corners of her lips curving up as she looked over at Aleksis with a glint of amusement in her eyes. She sighed, examining her bare fingernails boredly as she continued, “Shall I repeat security codes? Or our birthdates or regale you of the time you and all of LOCCENT overheard victory celebration in conn-pod? I can do all three, but I think you would blush.”

She heard a choked sound on the other end of the line, and she frowned. When Mr. Choi spoke again, his voice sounded thick. “ I- Lieutenant. I’ll inform Marshall Hansen immediately.” They were forced, and more than just a little questionable.

It made sense that he would not mention her name beyond rank, but - 

“ Marshall Hansen? What has happened to Marshall Pentecost?” She asked after a moment, her gaze flickering over to meet Aleksis’s through the glass. Sasha knew that the Marshall had been ill as she was, but of a different variety. Radiation poisoning, but not cancer. He would survive as long as he remembered to take his pills and to stay out of a Jaeger, or so she had thought.

_It had been one of their ‘girls nights’, she and Miss Mori in her quarters, with DVDs and liquor and hair dye and nail polish. It was a necessary thing they had both realized, to take time to remember that you were not just a soldier, and they’d enjoyed it- Miss Mori was quite the woman, if far too respectful and obedient for Sasha’s liking, at least until she had vodka and then- That was when she learns of the Marshall’s sickness._

Aleksis cocked an eyebrow and gestured with his hand, and she nodded, remembering they still had no idea what had actually gone on after the Double Event. They had yet to actually enter the tiki bar they were standing outside of, where Jack had told them they could catch the news after making their call, so they still were in the dark.

“ And what of the Kaiju? Did-” She stopped mid sentence; at least they knew that the Kaiju had not managed to get to those in the Shatterdome, but what of Hong Kong itself? It had to be still standing, else she doubted this island would have remained populated as it had, but- it frustrated her that they did not know for certain.

Tendo seemed to know what she was asking, and after a moment of what sounded like ferocious scribbling, he said, “ They’re gone, Lieutenant. They- Becket and Mori did it.” Deliberately, he did not answer about Marshall Pentacost, and Sasha felt her heart jump into her throat, for just a moment.

So he was dead.

After a few more minutes, mostly of Sasha trying to describe just about where she thought they were, they hung up, Tendo promising to send a chopper right away to pick them both up before disconnecting with a click.

It was only as she was pushing the glass door of the phone booth open with her right hand that she realized she hadn’t mentioned their injuries, and she snorted.

Oh well.

It would be amusing to see the looks on their faces, at any rate.

Aleksis pushed off of the phone booth and- yes, there was a definite creaking this time- moved to gather her in his arms. She let him, let his warmth encompass her as they stood near the phone booth and waited. They could have gone in, they could gotten a drink or just sat down, but-

Suddenly, Sasha felt too tired to sit, and yet too tired to stand alone.

_“{ It is over, Krasavchik.}”_ She murmured against his chest, her hand coming up to twist in the fabric of his shirt, an old, worn thing that they’d found hidden under one of the seats in Jack’s boat. It had some old martial artist on it, but she couldn’t for the live of herself figure out who.

Jack had simply laughed when she had asked, and said that it was a secret.

Hmmph.

A silly thing, but- silly things were easier to think about than not so silly things, such as the fact that- it was over. What they had both been for 10 years of their lives-

Wasn’t necessary anymore.

Aleksis looked at her, concern knitting his brow, and she let out a sigh before stepping up on tip toes to press a kiss to his lips, soft and sad and jubilant all at once, as her hand came up to cup his cheek.

_“{There is no room for soldiers in time of peace, Aleksi. The war is over.}”_ And as she said it, she smiled, albeit gently and sadly at the thought of Cherno laying in the bottom of Victoria Bay, of never stepping into the conn-pod again, of never slipping into the drift, into Aleksis, as easily as she slipped into a new dress.

He looked at a loss as well, struck between ectastic celebration and a foreboding sense of ‘what do we do now’, and he let out a grunt and Sasha sighed once more and kissed him again, throwing her arm around his neck and hauling herself up into his arms, letting him cling to her as she clung to him.

For the first time in ten years, Sasha realized that they could stop fighting.

But-

She wasn’t sure they knew how.

_He was not the Marshall when they first met him- he was a pilot like they were, coming into Vladivostok  for a visit with the little girl Mako Mori dead asleep in his arms, and Sasha had thought him soft then, taking in the child and giving up most time which could be spent training. She learns better, later, that Stacker Pentecost is a good man._

Marshall Pentecost was dead.

They heard it in the helicopter, as they sat next to the new Marshall Hansen and the pilot, who kept sneaking glances back at them to make sure they were truly there.

There was a sadness in Herc Hansen’s eyes, but Sasha knew better than to question it. She knew that look, had seen it in her own eyes from Aleksis after her brother had passed, had seen it in countless looks of countless pilots.

Pentecost was dead.

Hu, Cheung and Jin were dead.

Chuck Hansen was dead.

But-

The world had been saved.

The warclock has stopped, and -

and yet.

They did not talk about what would happen next, not when it came to the Jaeger program at least- the Marshall couldn’t stop staring at her arm, and so she’d told him quite matter of factly what had happened. Aleksis had begun to mention something about cybernetic arms and she’d shushed him, and then pointed out the Kaiju Blue burns on his skin.

She still wasn’t exactly sure why the Marshall had laughed at them.

-/-

Before they stepped out of the chopper, Sasha felt Aleksis’s hand move over hers, felt his big beefy palm hot and comfortable against her much smaller hand before fingers twined, and he lifted their hands so he could press a firm, whiskery kiss to her knuckles.

She smiled softly, that smile she reserved only for him, and then nodded.

_I love you. I’m here. Together._

And so they stepped out, hand in hand to face whatever was to come.

Together.

**Author's Note:**

> Shluha vokzal'naja- Train Station Whore  
> krasavchik - handsome
> 
> As always- I love critique and constructive criticism, and feel free to let me know if anything bothers you or you like anything specifically :)


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